Awake
by dukefan01
Summary: A small story of when Shuhei wakes up after the Quincy war. An old friend tells him how he thinks Shuhei did during the war. I own nothing.


Shuhei groaned in pain as he opened his eyes. He looked at the white ceiling, trying to figure out where he was or what happened. The last thing he remembered was running along the street with multiple other Shinigami, intent on offering their support in the finale assault against the enemy forces. Yet as they ran the pain of his injured body caused him to begin to slow. As he fell behind the others an immense pain suddenly went through his body. Realizing he had no idea what happened after that Shuhei quickly sat up, intending to look around.

The young fukutaichou let out a sharp yelp of pain as his body protested against the action and found himself laying back on the bed. Hissing and panting from his injuries, he tried to slowly look around the room. It looked like the fourth divisions' hospital. Turning his attention back to himself he tried to assess the damage. He was covered in bandages, looking like a mummy from an old horror movie.

As the young man was trying to collect his thoughts, the door opened. Aoga stepped into the room, looking alarmed for a moment. He gave Shuhei a small forced smile when he saw the tattooed male was awake. "About time you got your ass up, you were lucky." he said, a level of humor in his voice. Shuhei ignored it for the moment, too worried about what he missed to let his long time friend try to ease his mind.

"What happened?" he asked. Aoga sighed, an Shuhei figured it wasn't pleasant.

"You were pretty banged up when they found you, you almost didn't make it. There was a lot of signs of healing of many of the wounds, I'm assuming before you went on that ridiculous finale charge of yours that you got some emergency medical treatment. The others all said they never noticed you disappear. You had a gun shot wound, a powerful one, that went from your right shoulder and out your lower left side torso. It pierced your Saketsu and Hakusui, as well as a few organs on the way. From the precision and the skill we're assuming it was that guy Lille Barro. You got lucky that Inoue girl was around. She was able to save you and patch up the worst of your physical wounds. However your reiatsu was so low we thought you were going to die anyway. You've been in a coma for nearly a week now trying to recover it." he said.

Shuhei looked down, trying to process what his friend and apparently doctor was telling him. Usually if the Saketsu and Hakusui is pierced it is the end of a shinigami's life, never mind their career. If Orihime Inoue hadn't been able to restore that he really would have passed on at worst, or had to retire from the Gotie thirteen at best. Aoga was right, he had been lucky. However when he asked what had happened, he hadn't meant himself!

"I meant the situation." he hissed. Aoga looked up at the ceiling, probably trying to recall the damage done.

"We won, but barley. Our forces are extremely low, all the divisions have less then fifty percent of their forces, we'll be trying to rebuild on people for a long time. As for the high ranking officers...well adding to Yamamoto-suotaichou and Sasakibe-fukutaichou we have Unohana-taichou of the fourth, Kurotsuchi-fukutaichou of the twelveth, and Ukitatke-taichou of the thirteenth also confirmed dead. Kira-fukutaichou, Komamura-taichou, and Kusajishi-fukutaichou are all missing, and according to the latter two's divisions they are gone for good. Otoribashi-taichou and Muguruma-taichou are still in critical condition right now. The Third, Eighth, and Ninth have no leadership right now. The Fourth is barley holding together with the fukutaichou as acting Taichou, and the Seventh isn't doing much better. The Tenth is trying to recover, having just got their leaders back, and the Eleventh and Twelveth have lost their fukutaichous. The Thirteenth is also a mess. They barley recovered from loosing their beloved Shiba and now Ukitatake is gone." Aoga sighed heavily again. Shuhei tried to let all of that information sink in as well.

"What about Mashiro?" Shuhei asked, worried. He had lost track of the green haired girl directly after his training ended. Aoga shrugged.

"I think she's fine. She's trying to keep the division going but she's never there. She's actaully running between you and Muguruma-taichou." he said. Shuhei nodded.

"And Kurosaki?" he asked. Aoga nodded.

"The human's survived. Kurosaki, his friend Sado, that healing girl Inoue, and the Quincy Prince Ishida all left along with former tenth taichou Shiba and two other former taichou's to the rukongai to stay with the Shiba's." he said. Shuhei nodded. "That all aside, your pretty incredible Hisagi." Aoga said. Shuhei turned an alarmed and stunned look to him so fast his body screamed in protest.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"I heard you faced a Quincy during the second assult on your own." Aoga said with a smile. Shuhei's expression turned dark.

"And I was defeated and had to be rescued by the Suotaichou, who died directly afterwards." Shuhei spat.

"Then you managed to achieve bankai." Aoga continued on, as if Shuhei never even spoke.

"Only because Muguruma-taichou and Mashiro would have killed me if I didn't." the fukutaichou objected.

"Then you faced another Quincy by yourself after he knocked out the eleventh division officers you were with." Aoga went on.

"And was knocked out by him a second later and had to be rescued by Muguruma-taichou." Shuhei spat, his mood turning darker by the second.

"Then you killed one of the stirnritter." Aoga continued.

"While Kuchiki-taichou killed three by himself." Shuhei hissed.

"Then you helped create the doorway to the Soul King's palace." Aoga said.

"That was promptly destroyed." Shuhei added.

"And you went on the finale assault." Aoga finished.

"Only to be sniped by the enemy and was no help to anyone." Shuhei hissed. Aoga suddenly started laughing, getting another glare from his long time school mate.

"You're really arrogant you know." Aoga said. That was **not** what Shuhei was expecting.

"What does that mean?" he sputtered. Aoga scowled, as if Shuhei was too stupid to figure it out for himself.

"That first quincy you fought was Driscoll Berci. He killed over one hundred members of the first division in just over a hundred and eighty seconds. He then killed Sasakibe-fukutaichou. Sasakibe had the abilities of a taichou! Berci then went on to kill two hundred other shinigami just before running into you! It took Yamamoto-suotaichou to defeat him. The second man was Mask de Masculine. From what I was told by Abaria-fukutaichou as well as Madarame and Ayasegawa was that you managed to keep him from running away after he attacked the three of you, giving two taichou's chance to get there. You were able to regain consciousness to tell those two taichou's vital information. Those same two taichou's who are extremely experienced in battle were defeated by that man. He was defeated by Abarai, who had just returned from special training with the zero division. The third was the stirnritter **you** defeated. So what if a taichou was able to defeat two? You defeated one on your own. That's more than most of the other fukutaichou's can say! The third was that guy Pepe Waccabrada. Kuchiki-taichou told me about him when he came to check on you. So what if he managed to take control of you? Apparently he took control of a Kuchiki-taichou's zanpakuto as well! There were also four taichou's present when he was defeated, and even then he got away alive! The last guy was the leader of their special forces group. It took the current suotaichou and his fukutaichou to defeat him, and even then he was finished off by someone else." Aoga said. truthfully he didn't know the details of the three other taichou's, or even the fukutaichou who finished the last man off, but that wasn't important at the moment.

Shuhei looked surprised. He didn't realize so many people would come to visit him, and it seemed like Aoga was there by his side every day to know all of this. "That same guy Barro helped defeat the entire zero division. So tell me **fukutaichou** , what makes you think you could defeat any one of them on your own? Two of them took the strongest individuals we had to take them out, the other two took multiple taichous to take them down. So tell me, what makes you think your on the same level as the taichou's or the zero division?" Aoga asked. Shuhei was dumbstruck.

"I...I never said I was." he said.

"Then why are you judging your skills based on their level? No one doubts your a skilled fukutaichou. In fact your one of the best. However that's what you are Hisagi, a fukutaichou. So stop this pity me party. It's amazing in itself that you were able to leave those battles still alive. Don't forget that the first guy killed Sasakibe-fukutaichou. The second defeated two taichous. The third defeated quite a number and took multiple taichou's to defeat. The last one killed members of the zero division. You crossed blades with each of them and your the one still here. Take some pride in that." Aoga said in a stern voice. Shuhei blinked in surprise.

"He's right Shu-chan." both men jumped at the unexpected voice and turned to see that at some point, Mashiro had entered the room unnoticed. "Kensei will even have to admit that, since one of them beat him. I suppose however that he did manage to come back and help beat the other." she said with a sly smile. She had no desire to tell Shuhei that he was a zombie being controlled by Mayuri at the time however. She was afraid that would set back his recovery, and right after he woke up from the coma too.

Shuhei looked at both of them for a moment before nodding. They had a point. Mashiro then gave a huge dramatic sigh. "Well now that Shu-chan is awake he can take over the division as acting-taichou until Kensei gets his lazy butt up." she said dramatically. Aoga frowned.

"Kuna-fukutaichou, he's in no shape to be working! He just woke up from a coma ten minutes ago!" Aoga scolded her. Mashiro scowled.

"But I don't want to go to Aizen's sealing, so he should go." Mashiro pouted. Aoga started to yell again when Shuhei held up a hand.

"It's fine Aoga. I want to go." Shuhei said. Honestly he wanted to ask Aizen a few questions, and he'd never have another opportunity. Aoga and Mashiro both gave him a cautious look. They clearly knew what he was thinking and didn't agree. However they wouldn't voice it. Aoga knew more than anyone how Shuhei was feeling right now. The loss of Kanisawa, the loss of Tosen, the loss of Kensei, the loss of his confidence, the loss of his division. It all came back to Aizen. For Mashiro she knew what it was like to be betrayed, to be literally stabbed in the back by one of the men who had worked under her, someone she had trusted. There was nothing either of them could say that would change his mind, and all three of them knew that.

"So Aoga, when can I go visit Muguruma-taichou?" Shuhei asked, trying to change the mood. Aoga gave him a stunned look.

"What part of 'you just woke up from a coma' did you not understand? You're not going anywhere for a bit. We need to check you over and make sure you're alright! Then you need to rest some more." Aoga said in a horrified tone. Shuhei groaned.

"Come on Aoga, I'm fine now." he argued. Mashiro could tell from the tone that neither were having a real conversation. Rather they were just filling space and killing time.

"I can take you." she said slyly, knowing it would get Aoga worked up.

"I said NO!" Aoga yelled. He didn't sound too angry though, and she knew it was because he was just as happy as she was that Shuhei was finally awake.

 **Hey guys! So I was reading Shuhei's novel of 'Can't Fear your own world' which is being translated on Tumblr by the lovely Missstormcaller. For anyone that cares for an update, most of the information in this, like what happened to Shuhei after he was shot and him going to Aizen's resealing in place of Kensei who would still be in critical condition for a while are from that novel. Also, Shuhei still has his motorcycle in it even six months later, and it's red.I just wanted it to be Aoga who looks after Shuhei while he was in the hospital.  
**


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